时文英语阅读YuanLongping, 'Father of Hybrid Rice,' dies at 91

By Global Times - Xinhua

Published: May 22, 2021 01:45 PM

Yuan Longping, widely known as "the Father of HybridRice," died of illness in Changsha at 1:07 pm on Saturday at the age of91, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Yuan, the pioneer of the research and development of hybrid rice inChina, was the first scientist in the world to successfully utilize theheterosis of rice.

On September 29, 2019, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of thefounding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, Yuan was awardedthe "Medal of the Republic". The award speech stated that he haddevoted his life to the research, application and promotion of hybrid ricetechnology, created a super hybrid rice technology system, and made outstandingcontributions to China's food security, agricultural scientific development andworld food supply.

Yuan, born in September 1930, hadhelped China work a great wonder  ̶ feeding nearly one-fifth of the world'spopulation with less than 9 percent of the world's total land.

Getting enough to eat, however, used to be a serious problem inChina. "I saw heartbreaking scenes of people starving to death on the roadbefore 1949," recalled Yuan.

It was in that year that Yuan applied for Southwest AgriculturalCollege and began his special connection with rice ̶ a staple food for many Chinese people ̶ that would become the focus of his lifelongresearch career.

A discovery of a peculiar wild rice species by Yuan in the southernisland of Hainan in 1970 became the prelude of China's decades-long effotrts ofhybrid rice research. Three years later, he cultivated the world's firsthigh-yielding hybrid rice strain with three lines, namely, the male sterile,maintainer and restorer.

Hybrid rice has since been grown across the country and farmers havereaped incredible output after switching to Yuan's hybrid varieties.

Hybrid rice recorded an annual yield about 20 percent higher thanthat of conventional rice strains ̶ meaning it could feed an extra 70 million peoplea year. Now its accumulated planting area in China hasexceeded 16 million hectares, with the total grain output reaching 658 billionkilograms (kgs)  in 2018, a nearlyfivefold increase from that of 1949.

In 1986, Yuan brought up the hybrid rice breeding strategy from thethree-line hybrid rice strain to a two-line, and later on to a one-linevariety. The two-line technique means that the hybrid rice seeds are cultivatedwith the male sterile and restorer lines only, which will call for lesscomplicated techniques, save labor and cut costs. Compared with its three-linepredecessor, the two-line hybrid rice strain has higher yields and makes use ofmanpower and material resources more efficiently, according to rice experts.

Yuan's team has continued to make new breakthroughs. The team wasinvited to make a trial plantation of the saline-alkaline tolerant rice inexperimental fields in Dubai in January 2018, and it was another success storyfor the team. China's export of saline-alkaline tolerant rice and the techniquehas been eyed as a way to combat the world's food insecurity.

In 1995, local farmers planted 20,000 hectares of two-line hybridrice in 55 counties on a trial base. The per hectare output reached 8,250 kgs,1,125 kgs more than that of the three-line strain. The success establishedChina's leading position in the global field of hybrid rice research.

In 1996, the Ministry of Agriculture formally established a superrice breeding program. Four years later, the first phase of the 10.5 tons perhectare target was achieved. The record was shattered three more times withjumps to 12 tons in 2004, 13.5 tons in 2011 and 15 tons in 2014.

Now the focus of Yuan's hybrid rice project has changed fromincreasing output to green and sustainable development. In September 2017, astrain of low-cadmium indica rice developed by Yuan's team and the Hunanprovincial academy of agricultural sciences was able to reduce the averageamount of cadmium in rice by more than 90 percent in areas affected by heavymetal pollution.

After the double-cropping rice exceeded 1,500 kgs per mu lastNovember, Yuan put forward the goal of striving to achieve a yield of 2,000 kgsper mu as soon as possible. While just in early May, the double-cropping ricewith a per-mu yield of 3,000 kgs achieved its first harvest in Sanya, SouthChina's Hainan Province. One mu equals roughly 0.067 hectares.

From the Mekong River in Vietnam, Sumatra Island in Indonesia, IndusPlains in Pakistan, to the hilly valleys in Nigeria, hybrid rice has beenpromoted and introduced to dozens of countries and regions. It now has anoverseas planting area of 7 million hectares.

Yuan was also awarded with many international awards, such as GoldMedal Award for the Outstanding Inventor of the United Nations WorldIntellectual Property Organization, Science Prize of United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Rank Prize for Agronomy andNutrition of the United Kingdom, Medal of Honor for Food Security andSustainable Development of the United Nations Food and AgricultureOrganization, and Fukui International Koshihikari Rice Prize of Japan.

"I have always had two dreams: The first dream is to pursuehigh yield and higher yield of rice; the second dream is having hybrid riceplanted throughout the globe. I have always worked hard to make my dream cometrue, and I hope to encourage you to realize these two dreams together withme," Yuan said.

Global Times - Xinhua

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